How Rotterdam has its own ideas on ents and dwarves

The Tolkienist’s Tour of the Netherlands which took place on April 12, 2014 brought me to four lovely cities – Maastricht, Rotterdam, Leiden and Geldrop. This was my first visit to Rotterdam and I am now quite convinced all the Dutch friends and colleagues who I had asked beforehand were absolutely right: this is a place to visit.

I had only one hour in Rotterdam and there really wasn’t much else I could do but walk down straight from the Centraal Station up to the Nieuwe Maas and have a quick look around. It really is a vibrant city, renowned for its fascinating, unusual and downright weird architecture, full of art, busy as a beehive. I loved the vibe and do hope I can come back for a longer stay soon. I definitely have to catch up on my Dutch 🙂

Now, two monuments caught my attention. This one shows an interesting concept of dwarf:

 

If you would like to find about more about this infamous ‘gnome’ have a look at Deborah Harms’ blog post. And no, I didn’t know about it before.

And this one really gets me thinking about the role of ents and huorns.

 

This is quite an interesting sculpture as it was installed in 2001 – and taking a picture in it in 2014 shows out it has come to interact with the living trees around it. It is called ‘Elevazione.’

And that was the furthest I came in my walk through Rotterdam, always accompanied by my trusted companion, Fandalf.

This is the way I took down to the riverbank. Please don’t tell me I took the worst way ever when first visiting this beautiful city. 😉 Give me some advice for next time in the comments.